Journeys Through The Mushroom World
by Cheep FIsh Baby
Summary: The story of Super Mario Bros. 3, told from Mario's POV.
1. Chapter 1

Prologue

My name is Mario Mario. Ok, that's not really my name. My real name is Mario Moro. But because they sound so similar, and because people always call me and my brother Luigi "The Mario Brothers" that's sorta become my unofficial last name.

I'm an Italian-American from Brooklyn. Well, I used to be. I haven't been in Brooklyn for quite a few years now.

My life sure seemed great back then. Me and my bro ran are own plumbing and misc. contracting company, I had a wonderful girlfriend Pauline, and had a lot of great friends.

But my life changed on that night in 1982. I can't remember the exact date, but I believe in was in the summer. A huge ape creature came and attacked New York like something out of King Kong.

He was running right down the street I lived on. There were police cops following him and blocking the road ahead. Me, Pauline, and Luigi had just happened to be there and were running for our lives. None of us knew what was happening. All I know was that I wanted Pauline away from the horrible thing.

Something's were funny. People were evacuating buildings, while others running into them. But I had no time to laugh. The streets were packed. We couldn't get on the sidewalks, and the streets were covered with cars. The ape was stepping on the cars, and we barely missed its toes. But Pauline...

She did get caught between Kong's toes. She screamed, she screamed. I tried to get closure but Luigi held me back. The monkey must of felt her, because he screamed and kicked his foot up, Pauline into the air, and I actually tried to jump to save. The ape caught her, and I thought for sure he would crush her in his giant fist, but, instead carried her in the palm of her hand, and ran away stepping on the police cars on the way.

I ran after him, with Luigi following behind me. I didn't care what I had to do; I pushed aside every person in my way. Luckily it didn't go very fast, and he wasn't exactly hard to find. We finally pushed past the crowds, and the ape went into an empty construction site. He, seeming more like King Kong at every moment, climbed up it and kept her captive.

I wasn't exactly sure why he did it, but I knew I had to try to save him. Luigi disapproved, but nevertheless, watched as I attempted to save her. I climbed up the side of the building frame in a series of ladders. The monkey kept throwing building materials down at me, but luckily I found a sledgehammer and crushed the things before they got me.

I got to the top and wasn't sure what to do. I jumped on a bar above his head, jumped on his back and tried to get Pauline. I touched her hand, and tried to pull her towards me. But the ape threw her down to the ground. Luigi caught her before she could hit the ground, and the ape disappeared. Just into thin air, it was gone.

I got down quickly. Pauline had passed out, but seemed ok. A cop car pulled up in front of the site. We told him what happened, and he got an ambulance to come get Pauline. I asked him if he could just drive us home.

I never stopped thinking about Pauline that whole night. Early morning, Luigi and me planned on going down to the hospital to check up on her. But we got an emergency call from a guy, who offered us big bucks if we went straight away. We went down, only because the money would help pay hospital bills.

We went down in our van to a strange house in Queens. The windows were all covered in dark drapes, and the roof made a dome shape at the top. I knocked on the door, and a strange looking man answered. He was short and bald, and was a vest covered in polka dots. Luigi asked what the problem was and he, "Mr. Stool" as he called himself, said his toilet was clogged up.

We got out our plungers, and started working. We traced the problem back to a pipe behind the wall. We carefully removed the tiles around it, and were shocked by what we saw. The pipes didn't seem to connect to walls at all, but rather, behind the wall was a huge green pipe, large enough for both of us to fit in it.

I went back out to ask Mr. Stool about this, but he was gone. Luigi and me checked every room in his house, but he was nowhere to be found. Even the white Volkswagen he had parked in the driveway was still there.

A lot of weird things had happened to us in the last 2 days. Hardly did I know that this was just the beginning of what was left come. But I was sure this pipe was somehow connected to the ape that attacked last night.

My brother and I argued what to do. I was convinced that we had to go into that pipe to figure out what was happening, but my brother said to get away from that house and never come back. But despite his objections, I went into the pipe.

I hardly stepped one foot inside when I felt something sucking me inside, like vacuum cleaner. Everything became darker, and then I passed out. My brother pulled up his courage and went after me.

I woke up some time later. Luigi was still out cold next to me. I looked at my surroundings. I was in a huge empty room. The walls were made of stone, and fancy floor tiles. The pipe was next to us; it was coming up from the ground. I ran towards a window. We were around a huge grassy area, with tons of mushrooms growing in the ground. I looked at the building we were in. It was a huge castle.

Luigi started coming to. He looked confused like he couldn't remember what just happened. We talked for a while, not sure what to do. Luigi wanted to go back through the pipe. I hesitated, but agreed that would be the best thing to do. Luigi went on top of it, but it was blocked. Some invisible force was keeping him from going in.

Just then, the door opened. It was the man, Mr. Stool. But now he was wearing a hat shaped like a mushroom.

"Hello," he said.

"Who are you, what is going on here?" I demanded.

He apologized for tricking them here, but thought we would never come if he had told them first.

"What, you haven't answered anything. Why do you want us here."

"This is the Mushroom Kingdom. A country in the mushroom world."

"What exactly is the Mushroom World?"

He told us it was a dimension. There were a lot of dimensions. We were from one of the boring dimensions. He said he brought us here because he was having problems with the Koopa World.

"Koopa? What's a Koopa?" asked Luigi.

"Koopas can look very different. Little ones look just like turtles with beaks. The big ones look like dragons with shells, and most can breathe fire. They are ruled by one of the evilest things I ever met, named King Bowser."

"What does this have to do with us?"

He told us that the Koopa dimension was a horrible world of darkness and barren land. He said that they had tapped in to the power of pipes, a way of transportation of the mushroom citizens, and were able to come into their world.

"So, that's what happened. That green pipe was a way to get us in here. But just answer me, who exactly are you!"

"My name is Toad. I am Prime Minister of the mushroom citizens, and advisor for our ruler, Princess Peach Toadstool. I'm also a semi-powerful wizard. Now here is the point to why I have brought you here. The koopas, and a lot of other evil creatures from their world have started an attack on the Mushroom Kingdom. Before they came here, our land was happy. The little koopas, and Bowser's army have taken control of most of the land, forcing my people out. The higher Koopas have taken control of the castles where mushroom royalty live, and are keeping the other Mushroom citizens hostage. They aren't able to kill them, because I have put a spell to protect them. But, worst of all, Bowser has kidnapped our princess. He's using her magic powers to keep control this land. He won't kill her, but we have to save her."

"Look, this is starting to scare me...why are we here!"

"Bowser is using the princess' power to keep me from using my magic to save her. Luckily, none of the Koopas have gotten me yet. The only way to save her now is to fight Bowser hand to hand. I, or any mushroom citizen, would have no chance fighting Bowser. So I knew I had to get a mortal to do it. That's why I brought my friend Donkey Kong into your world, to see if any human was able to stop them. You were."

"YOU WANT US TO FIGHT BOWSER FOR YOU!" screamed Luigi.

"Look, we feel bad for you...Toad, but this isn't our battle. I'm not going to risk my life for people I don't know. It's because of you that my girlfriend Pauline is in the hospital."

"I was never going to let DK kill anyone. But, you must do this for us. You won't die, I can give you more then one life."

"We're not doing it"

"Then, I'll lock you in this room and never let you go home."

Luigi and I talked about it. Neither of us thought this was a good idea, but figured it might be the only way to go back home.

Great way to start a friendship, huh? Being threatened into saving his home. But we're great friends now. I'm happy my brother and I decided to do this, if we hadn't, my life would be a lot sadder now.

Toad taught us all about the Mushroom Kingdom. He said that the Princess' castle was far away from here, but that Bowser was preventing him from transporting straight there. We'd have to get past a lot of land, and fight lots of enemies to save the world. And along the way, try to save the mushroom citizens from the Koopas.

I asked what we would eat along the way. He said to eat the mushrooms. The mushrooms had amazing effects on us. They made us instantly bulk up, and grow taller, making us stronger. Just the thing we needed for fighting monsters.

There were a lot of things we saw, mostly koopas and goombas. Goombas are brown bug things, which are about half my size. They sting really badly, but I can easily step on it. The koopas are interesting, when you kill them, you can use their shells to hit other monsters.

Another thing that Toad told me that I could eat were flowers. The flowers are the strangest things ever. When you eat them, you gain the ability to shoot fire, and your whole body turns red. There are blocks floating in the air, and lots of things come out of the, mostly golden coins. Those coins are the most crucial thing on my adventures; when you collect enough of them, it gives you extra lives. One more chance to live after you die. 

Dying when you have extra lives is a weird thing. You lose all feeling in your body, you black out, and you feel like you're in a tunnel heading to a white light. But when you reach it, you're eyes open, and you appear a safe distance away from where you had died. Another thing I watched out for was the rare green mushroom, which gives me an extra life. I died a few times on my way, but it didn't matter because I always had extra lives.

But the most amazing thing that came out of those blocks were stars. If you catch it in your hand, your whole body starts glowing, and anything that touches you dies. But it last only for a few seconds.

So, Toad taught us what to expect on the journey, but before we left, he trained us by playing a little simulated game where Luigi and I were put in a strange room with lots of platforms, and enemies would pop up from pipes. We had to hit the platform below them, knocking them down, and then kick them away.

After all that, we set out. We went through so many different strange lands. Bowser must of known we were coming, because the ground was filled with pits that seemed to go on forever. But my brother and I made it, and we finally got to the princess' palace. Bowser had changed the inside of it to make it like a confusing maze. But we made throw it, and killed Bowser by tossing him in lava. I stepped forward and got Princess Toadstool out of the cave she was in. She was so happy she kissed me.

God, she was a beautiful woman. She had deep blue eyes, and dirty blonde hair. After we saved her, the entire Mushroom Kingdom went back to the way it was before. It was a great land. Toad appeared and thanked us so much.

After that, Luigi and I decided to stay there for a while. It had taken so long to save Peach that it was already 1985. Peach and I got closer; I guess you could say we were dating. I forgot all about Pauline.

We passed our times doing things like playing pinball, golf, tennis, and more of that simulator game Toad had.

I had always intended on going back to Brooklyn, but for some reason, I never did. It was 1988 when something strange happened. I kept having weird dreams where I would go up a flight of stairs; open a door, and this weird world would spread before my eyes. I kept hearing a voice.

"This is Sub-Con, the dimension of peoples dreams. But we are being turned evil by a creation of nightmares named Wart. You have to save our world Mario, like you saved the Mushroom Kingdom."

I talked to the gang about it, and we decided to help clear my mind by going out. We had a picnic at a near-by mountain. Things were going well, until I noticed a small cave in the mountain. I didn't know why, but I felt compelled to it. I told my friends to go with me in it. When we got inside, I saw a staircase just like in my dream. I ran as fast as I could to the top. My friends followed. The stairs stopped. A door stood at the edge, and didn't seem to lead anywhere. I opened the door, and walked through. I was in a dark room. My friends came in.

We turned around, and the door was gone. We all decided that we should try and save Sub-Con. It was interesting being there, fighting along-side my friends. A lot of things were similar to the Mushroom Kingdom, and many things were different. I couldn't believe how good Peach could fight. It made me think how strong Bowser must really be, and also, how strong I must be to of beat him. But I didn't really beat him; I just got past him and got him in the lava pit. We eventually defeated Wart, by throwing vegetables at him Oo after about a year there. We appeared back in the cave, and it seemed as though no time had passed.

A year passed after that. We enjoyed peaceful living, playing tennis, table tennis, and golf. But Luigi and I were starting thinking about going back to our dimension. It was hard for me, because I couldn't imagine life without Peach, but Luigi also didn't seem ready. But one day when we were going to tell them we might go back to Brooklyn, Peach came running out of her room crying.

"What's the matter," I asked.

"Her cousin, a princess in a dimension called Sarasaland has been kidnapped by an evil space monster named Tatanga," said Toad. "He's trying to conquer Sarasaland, and is planning to force Princess Daisy marry him. And worst of all he's hypnotized all of her people so they won't save her. It's upsetting the Princess Toadstool a lot, they were very close."

"Oh Mario. We must save Daisy," wept Peach. "We can do it. We saved Sub-Con, and you and Luigi saved me from Bowser. We must save Daisy."

This was the worst possible time for this to happen. And I was tired of going to different dimensions; risking my life for people I don't know. But I couldn't say no to Peach. And besides, maybe something good will happen from this like when I went here.

Toad tried to open a pipe into Sarasaland. Ever since the koopas invaded, pipes into other dimensions had been temperamental. I went in first, with Luigi following. I got to the other side, and Sarasaland sure seemed a lot like the Mushroom Kingdom, without the mushrooms. I looked behind me, and Luigi still hadn't come. It must of broke. I tried to go back in it, but it didn't work. I heard a voice coming from it.

"Mario!" it was Toad. "The pipe isn't working. We're stuck here. It might take a while before it starts working."

"Don't wait up for us!" screamed Peach. "Go on without us. Time is of the essence. I get to the Chai Kingdom and stop Tatanga!"

What could I do? As usual, I had no choice. I passed through Birabuto, Muda, and Easton, to save Princess Daisy. It was hard for me to spend so much time alone, without any friends to back me up. I beat Tatanga, after about 6 months, and met Daisy. She looked a lot like Peach, but I didn't feel attracted to her like I did to Peach.

A few minutes later, Toad, Luigi, and Peach appeared. Apparently they had been trying to catch up with me for 2 months, and since I defeated Tatanga, they could transport straight there. Luigi and Daisy stared at each other. They seemed like they had fallen in love at first sight. We stayed in Sarasaland for a month. After that, Luigi decided to stay with Daisy for a while.

We went back to the Mushroom Kingdom, and I told Peach I was going to go back to Brooklyn. She tried to convince me to stay, but I didn't. I said we'd be back together again someday. We had a romantic dinner and evening, and then Toad opened the pipe back home. He ensured me that it was working fine. I stepped in, and appeared back in the house where Toad tricked me. It was 1989, and I had been gone for 7 years.

I headed back to the old neighborhood, and everyone was shocked to see me. They all thought Donkey Kong had killed me. It felt weird seeing all my old friends, so much older. Victor and Mona were married, and Antonio had 2 kids. Everyone asked where I had been. I told them the story, and nobody believed me. They seemed to think that Luigi and I were secret agents for the government. I went along with that story, saying that Luigi was still on a mission in Germany.

I asked where Pauline was, and they said she had died in a car crash 4 years ago. I tried to pick up my life, opening the plumber business again. But my life seemed wrong there. I couldn't stop think about Peach. After almost a year, I decided I would try to get in contact with Toad to go back. That is how my story started, but not how it ended...


	2. Hartia: Grass World

"From The Diaries of Mario..."

I went down to the house the next day, to see what I could do. I went into the bathroom. The wall was still torn down, but the pipe was gone. It was just a normal wall.

I didn't know what to do. I screamed out!

"Toad! Peach! PEEEEACH!" and I nearly fell to the ground when the wall started changing.

The pipes disappeared, and a green blur headed toward me. The green pipe formed, and my favorite Mushroom man walked out, Toad.

"Mario?" he said.

"Toad! Did, did you hear me?" I said gleefuly.

"What. What are you doing here?" he asked. "How did you know I was coming"

"I didn't. I came down here to try and see if I could go back. I wanted to go to the Mushroom Kingdom again"

"Then you are either psychic, or have good timing. I came here to get you. Our dimension is under attack again. And it's not just the Mushroom Kingdom."

"WHAT!" I couldn't believe those words. How could this happen. "I thought, I thought you put a spell to keep the Mushroom World. What happened. Who is attacking you?"

"Bowser"

"That's impossible! Bowser is dead. I saw him boil."

"Well, somehow he didn't die. Koopas must be very resistant to heat. He somehow escaped from there, weakened, and escaped back to his own world. But now he's returned."

"WHAT!"

"He's gotten a hold of our princess again. He's holding her captive. He's completely destroyed the mushroom kingdom, and reconstructed it. A majority of the citizens had died. But he's taken hold of 7 other countries of our world. He's stolen the magic wands they have that use to rule their lands. Good thing they don't have magic inside themselves like our princess, or else he would of kidnapped them too. But he has turned them into animals. His army has taken captivity. And, Bowser has enlisted the help of his 7 children to look after the seven countries."

"I, I can't believe this. This is all my fault! If I hadn't of left I could of stopped this from happening. Why did I leave!"

"Mario, there was nothing you could of done. I had to flee the Mushroom Kingdom, and am currently hiding in a safe area in Hartia, one of the 7 countries. That's where I came here from. I came here to get you. I've already got Luigi."

"Ok. This certainly isn't how I planned my return, but Bowser has taken my love. This time I have a motivation to go. And I will be sure Bowser dies this time."

I stepped into the pipe, and instead of sucking me in like the first time I went, I teleported to my destination.

I arrived in a small dimly lit house. This was the common house of Mushroom Citizens, but Toad never lived in a small place like this. Toad came in behind a moment after.

"I know this isn't a big place, but I'm in hiding. The family that used to live here was killed," he stalled for a second, but then continued talking. "Come into the kitchen, I have a surprise for you."

He opened the door infront of me, and there sitting eeating a plate of pasta, in his green overalls and caps, was Luigi.

"Luigi!"

"Mario!" I ran up and hugged by brother. I had missed him so much. It was great that the Mario Brothers were back together

"How are things back home?"

"Horrible. It's so boring there. Everything is different and wrong. How's Daisy?"

"Great. Things are wonderful with us. I was quite shocked when Toad told me what happened earlier today."

"This isn't a reunion, boys," said Toad. "We have to prepare for this."

"What's the plan sir?" I asked.

"Here are maps of the 7 countries, and the Mushroom Kingdom. I have enchanted them so they will show your own position at all times. The lands you'll be facing are Hartia, Fernano, Xaxat, Hilton, Elsume, Diantée, and Quiboc. Each of these lands have airships above them with one of Bowser's children in it. You have to get through Hartia, to the King's palace at the other side of this land. It should take a few days to walk through it. In the palace, a mushroom royalty will use his own magic to transport you to the airship. Only he can, because he is from this land. I have marked the areas that are dangerous in on your maps. Bowser has also created castles on the way to block your journey. You will never be able to get past it. You msut enter it, get past the maze and obsticles inside, destroy the koopa waiting at the end, by jumping on its shell 3 times, and the castle will destroyed. When you get on the airship, I am guessing there will be a lot guarding it. Get to the end, and fight the koopa kid the awaits. Kill him the same way as the other koopas, and take his wand. Return it to its King, and he will return to normal and so will this land. The power of the wand will allow you to transport to the next land. Keep doing this. The princess, well, she might not last long without the amgic in her body."

I had some pasta, then me and Luigi set out on our latest adventure...


	3. Let'sa Go!

Now, I guess it is time to tell you more about this story. I've written it along my journey at nightm to pass the time(or if they ever make a movie about this "to let the world know my story). It's been hard for me to write everything that happened to me before this. And trying to write everything that has happened in me in one day is hard too.

Me and Luigi looked at our surroundings.

"Mario...this is beautiful," he said.

"I know. But looks can be deceiving, and we're not here to see the scenery."

We were surrounded by tons of grass and flowers, that seemed to go on forever. I admit it was a great sight, but I was preocupied.

"Now, let me see this map," I said. "We are here, and the King's palace is way on the other side of the country. We'll want to avoid as much of these danger zones as we can, so instead of going the long we going through the first zone, we can head down here as a short cut."

I turned south and started running, trying to get to the danger zone 5. But, all of a sudden, I brick wall appeared infront of me. And it appeared on the map.

"It must be one of those castles Toad told us about," Luigi said. "According to map, th entrance is down east, so we'll have to go past zones 1 and 2, and then we can head down to the castle."

"Damn" I said. "We can just go around it, can't we."

I saw the corner of the castle a few yards away from me. I ran to get past it, but as long as I ran, the castle wall kept growing.

"It's no use Mario. You heard what Toad said, we can't get past them."

"Fine."

I headed back up to the dirt road we were at before, and headed straight. According to the map, we had just entered the first danger zone.

I didn't look all to dangerous. The land was still as beautiful as before, and there was a huge tree infront of me. We kept walking, and I saw why it was dangerous. A goomba.

It headed towards us, it's sharp teeth ready to devour us. Luigi jumped over it, and then kicked it away.

"Good ridence," he said.

There were some golden blocks up ahead. I punched one and a coin came out. I never really understood these blocks, Toad said they were like seeds, where all sort of magic things would grow out of.

Me and Luigi had an agreement, whoever gets to it first gets to keep it. I put the coin in my backpack, that Toad had given me. Luigi got the next 2 coins, but I beat to the last one, and a mushroom came out. I ate it, and my body came over the magical sensation it always did. My body started growing, and feeling stronger, like out of Alice In Wonderland(or Mario in The Mushroom World)

We across 2 huge blocks, which had obviously been put there by Bowser. Me being shorter than my brother, got a boost from him to get up. Luigi then climbed up himself. We jumped off down the other side.

There was a green pipe coming out of the ground infront of us.

"Hmm, could be a trap," I said.

"But it could just get us somewhere we want to be," answered Luigi. "I'll go see myself." Luigi slowly walked towards the pipe. Just then, a plant arose from it. It was a piranah plant, they hid inside the pipes and tried to attack us when we came near.

Luigi stood right next to the pipe, which would make the piranah go inside. I climbed onto the pipe, and Luigi came after me. We ran away before it could get us with its fireballs.

I got a coin from out of a block infront of me, as Luigi killed a goomba. I went ahead, jumped on top a koopa troopa, and kicked its shell away. But as I did this, the shell hit a block that was on the ground, and a red leaf came out of it.

"What is this?" I said.

"I don't know. Looks like a leaf."

"Well, no duh Luigi! Hmm, it could be something that could help us, like flowers."

"But do you really want to test that out? It could be poison."

"Toad gave us 4 lives before we left. Even if it is dangerous, nothing bad will happen." I opened my mouth, and took a bite from the leaf. I got the same feeling I got from eating a mushroom. "Well, I don't feel any different."

"Uh, Mario...look at your back."

"Huh, why?" I turned around, and saw I had grown a tail. "AHH! Oh My God!"

"Maybe, you should feel the top of your head too..."

I did, and felt 2 pointy things.

"What happened? Am I growing horns!"

"No, actually, they're ears. You kinda look like a racoon."

"What the hell good is this!" But just then, 3 goombas started at us. Luigi got the first one, but the second went between his legs, and the third(who had wings) flew over his head.

The 2 of them came charging at me, at a speed I never thought goombas could travel. As if by instinct, I twirled my tail around, killing them both.

"Wow, Mario! How did you do that"

"I don't know. Maybe that's what this thing does."

"No, it isn't Mario," I heard a voice, and it definately was not Luigi.

"Who said that!" screamed Luigi.

"It's me guys, Toad. I am communicating to you psychicaly. I can't talk long though. I forgot to tell you guys that other worlds have a lot other things, with strange powers. That leaf will turn you into a raccoon, and the tail does serve as a weapon, that is not its main use. It is for flying."

"Flying! How can this make me fly?"

"Listen. Run as fast as you can, and you'll start to feel your feet leaving the ground. And soon, you'll be soaring through the sky. But watch out, it goes away gradually."

"Ok, I'll give it a try"

"I must go now. I'm loosing my connectio..." and he was gone.

I started running. I was running faster then I ever thought I could. There was a pit right infront of me, and I thought for a second I'd fall in it. But, like he said, my feet did start leaving the ground. I started going up, up, up!

"MARIO!" Luigi yelled.

It was the greatest feeling. Flying through the air, the wind blowing through you, no longer having to be on the ground. I found a coin floating in the air. There was another one sitting above it. There was a long diagonal line of coins in the sky. I caight them all. I started doing some loop-de-loops, and playing around. I found a big block.

I landed on it, and caught 3 coins on it. I saw a row of clouds infront of me. I already knew from other adventures that I could walk on clouds here. I jumped on it. There was a block above me. I hit it, and a green mushroom came out. I stuffed it down as fast as I could. One extra life for.

I walked along, and got the the coins that were sitting on the cloud. The cloud ended, but there were more coins in the air. So, I backed up, and started running. Once again, I was flying through the sky, and caught as many coins as I could along the way.

I saw a pipe in the sky. I thought it was worth a try, and went inside it, and fall into a dark room with lots of coins. Toad had told me he made these hidden places to help me on my way. I caught all the coins, and then went down another pipe.

I came out of the pipe on the ground, and saw Luigi was just behind me.

"MARIO! That was amazing. I saw everything you did. The next leaf I see, I'm eating it!"

"I knew. WHEW! That was the greatest sensation EVER! So, where are we on the map."

"Hmm, it says we are almost out of this danger zone."

We walked about a yard, and we were out of the zone.

"That wasn't so hard," said Luigi. "Why would you call that a danger zone."

"Well, there were monsters there, and there seem to be none out here, so it is riskier then here. And besides, that's how Bowser does things. He lours you into a false sense of secuirty, and then, bam!"

We went forward, and got past the second danger zone(nothing interesting happened there, so I wouldn't bother writing about it. We headed down south after that, to look for the entrance to the castle. But, all we found was a brick wall. The door was still further down east.

"Hmm, we'll have to go past zone 3, head down, go west through zone 4, and that should lead us directly into the castle."

"Damn, I wanted to skip zones 2, 3, and 4. Now it seems like we'll have to every zone here."

"Well, Bowser wouldn't want you to through easily. Hmm, the sun's already going down. Wanna set camp up here."

"I guess."

We got out our sleeping bags, and tried to sleep as soundly as we could...


	4. A Walk To Not Want To Remember

I woke up some hours later. The sun was rising over the horizon. In the distance, I could see 2 squirells running on a tree. And then, I saw it in the sky. It was the airship. It floated above Hartia, like it was ruling it. Who gave them the right to be here. Who said they could destroy these people. And then I pulled a picture of Peach out of my pocket.

I turned to Luigi and kicked him to wake up.

"AHH! What the hell was that for!"

"Your snoring was bothering me. But seriously, I know how much you can sleep and we have a long way to go today."

"You didn't have to kick me!"

"I know, but it's more fun that way"

He got up, and we headed east. We got through zone 3 without any trouble. We headed down the dirt road, and headed south like the map said. We came across a mushroom house.

"Hmm, just a house. If the people who lived there aren't dead, they certainly aren't in there," Luigi. "Let's just keep going."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you..."

"Toad?" I said.

"Yes, it's me again. You should go in there. There could be something to help you out. I'm sure they won't mind if you are doing it to save them."

"Well, ok. Thanks Toad."

"Farewell for now, Mario Brothers."

We stepped inside. This one was certainly better decorated then the house Toad was hiding in. There was a table in the middle of the room with a mushroom on it. I raced towards it, but Luigi got it first.

"Hmm, a mushroom. Too bad neither of us need a mushroom since we are already super. I guess I'll just save this for when I need it."

Luigi put the mushroom in his bag, and we left the house. We headed west to get to zone 4.

"Ok, according to the map, we should be there...now!"

There was a huge hill infront of us. We struggled to get to the top.

"Whew, this is hard" Luigi said.

"Look at the bright side, after this, it's all down hill."

But there was no down hill. At the top of the mountain, I saw that we were climbing a cliff.

"Ok, there must be someway down. There, there are some blocks over there."

We carefully jumped onto them. For some reason, me and Luigi always seemed to be able to jump a lot better in the mushroom world.

I tried not to move. There wasn't alot of space for me and Luigi, and we were so high up I couldn't even see the ground.

There was a bar floating back and forth between us and another row of blocks. We had seen a lot of things like these on our first journey in the Mushroom Kingdom. We quickly jumped on it, and to the blocks. The slightest weight made it drop to the ground, which is why we had to be fast.

Me and my brother caught the coins floating in the air, and then moved on. There were 2 more bars infront of us. They both went to different blocks. Luigi jumped on the higher one, and I went on the lower one. We jumped off, and I landed on the row of blocks, right beneath Luigi.

Luigi jumped down to an L-Shaped formation of blocks, and I jumped on a bar to get up to him. Luigi had already caught all the coins here.

"Man, this is hard. I hate it when we have to jump so much," I said.

"It's not that bad," said Luigi.

"Of course you'd say that, look at those long legs you have!"

We jumped down to a row of blocks. There was a golden block above me. I hit it, and a leaf came out. I eat it, and turned into Raccoon Mario.

"Oh, Lucky. You get to fly again," said Luigi.

"I doubt I'm going to be flying any time soon. There's certainly is no place to run."

Luigi killed a troopa koopa that came out of nowhere, and I went on without him. I jumped on the next row of blocks. There was one block that was sticking out above the other. I twirled my tail, and a green life came out of it.

"YES!"

"Hey, no fair! Now you have 6 lives and I only have 3!"

I tried not to feel bad, but Luigi was right. I felt so guilt rotten, that while I was jumping onto a bar infront of me, I lost my balance and fell. I fell and fell and fell. I felt like eternity, when I finally hit the ground. Oh, how terrible. It was the worst feeling in the world. My head snapped on a rock. The blood poured, and I felt myself going down...

I woke up alive a few minutes later. I was just outside zone 4. I went back, and got to the end of it alone. I got into a pipe, which tranported me down to the ground.

Luigi was there waiting for me.

"Wow, that must of hurt," said Luigi.

"It was horrible!" I said.

The castle was right infront of us. The door was opened. We knew w had to go in.

"I feel afraid. I know I've down stuff like this before, but that thing is giving me the creeps," said Luigi.

We summonded up our courage, and stepped inside the castle...


	5. The Castle

We stepped inside. It looked the same as the other castles. Hard grey brick walls everywhere, darkness except for a few torches on the wall, and that bone chilling feeling that only Bowser can send down your spine.

We walked forward. We walked for 5 minutes with no obsticles at all.

"What's going on here," I said. "This is beginning to seem like just a normal castle."

"I doubt that," said Luigi.

But as soon as I had spoken, there was a flight of stairs infront of me. We climbed up to the top, only to see it had ended like when we climbed the mountain. There was a pool of lava beneath us, with sparks coming out like wild.

We jumped the gap in the floor and kept walking. But we couldn't get to walk as much as we did the last time, because there was another lava pool infront of us. We jumped on a row of bricks floating above it. 

There was a golden block. Luigi punched it and out came a mushroom. He ate and and grow.

"Just the thing I needed," said Luigi.

We jumped to the ground at the end of the lava pool. There was another staircase, this time heading down. We got down, and walked down another long hallway.

"Man, walking is all we do," said Luigi. Since we first came to the Mushroom Kingdom we must of walked atleast a zillion miles. Why does there have to be so much walking."

"I don't mind. I must of lost 100 pounds after all this walking."

Ahead of us was something I had never seen before. It was a glowing ball, rotating in a circle around a red block in the ceiling. It came down to the ground, and up to roof, again, and again, and again. Later I would find it from Toad it was called a Rotodisc, but I didn't know what to think now.

"Whst is that," I said.

"I dunno, I'll go check it out."

Luigi walked up, he watched the thing from what he thought was a safe distance, but unfortantley he was right in it's rotation.

"LUIGI LOOK OUT!" But I was too late. The thing hit Luigi in the stomach, he screamed and he flew back infornt of me, and was no longer super.

"AAAAAHHHHHHH!" 

"Luigi, what did it do?"

"Oh, it hurt so much. Aw, it felt like my whole body has been shocked."

We observed its movement carefully, and were able to get past it without being hurt. We kept walking and climbed yet another flight of stairs. Another Rotodisc was infront us, this time it was coming from the floor. We were more careful about it, and got past safely.

There was a pool of lava ahead of us. I jumped to the blocks ahead of us, getting hit by a lava bubble in the process. I shrunk down to normal.

There was more lava infront of us, and the block ahead had a rotodisc on it. We stood still for a moment, but knew we had to get past it quickly. I jumped on and to the ground ahead quickly, but Luigi lost his balance and fell in the lava. I watched him scream, and saw how it was boiling him, taking off his skin, killing him inch by inch, I watched until he was completely covered.

I knew he'd come back to life, but I really wanted him here with me to fight the first koopa. I kept walking and saw a gold block. Boy, I must punched thousands of these by now, and I hit it once again. A mushroom came out, and I ate it. Mushrooms never really did taste that good, infant if I was in Brooklyn I would never eat one, but it was the only thing I had to keep me going.

I saw something that looked like a bird skeleton walk toward me. Toad had told me about it when I first trained to save Peach, but had never encountered it. They were called Dry Bones. It slowly (and I mean slowly even compared to a goomba) walked toward me. I punched it and its bones went flying over the ground.

I kept walking, but then the bones started rearranging themselves and came back to life. Then I remember Toad telling me these things couldn't be killed.

I ran away from it, but it still managed to peck me, sending me back to my little self. I came to the end of the hallway, and there was a door.

I walked into the next room and couldn't believe it. It was a straight hallway, and I could even see the door on the other side. No pits, no monsters, nothing. Or so it seemed.

I looked up and the entire roof was covered in spikes. Then, the roof started falling. It was dropping fast, and I thought for sure they'd kill me. But, I notice a spot ahead where there were no spikes on the roof. I rolled over to it, and avoided being hit by the spikes by half a foot.

The roof had come almost all the way to the floor. I couldn't stand up, and the spikes prevented me from even moving.

I thought I'd be trapped there forever. After about a minute, the roof started rising again, I stood up, and ran to the other side of the room as fast as I could. I ran to the door, but then the roof was starting to come down again.

That's when I saw the walls went down under the floor when the roof came down. I had nowhere to run this time. The door was gone, and the spikes were coming down. I curled in a ball and waited to die, but I didn't.

The roof was an inch from getting me, when it stopped and started going back up again. The door came back up, and ran in.

It was dark. Darker than normal. I couldn't see a thing. All I could make out was something shining infront of me. It was a torch hanging on the wall, and I could see where I was. It no longer looked like an old stone castle, but rather, a cave. The ground was dirt and the wall was rock.

There was something infront of me. I didn't know what it was, it just looked like a ball of spikes. I walked closer towards it. I almost touched it when...

It jumped out and tried to scratch my face out! It was a sleeping Koopa and I had awakened it. I jumped back and almost screamed. But I didn't. I didn't want it to know I was afraid.

"RRRRRR!" it growled at me.

"Hello Mr Koopa. I was expecting you."

"Grrr, aahhh!"

"What's the matter, can't talk? Well, maybe that's a good thing. I'm not in the chatting mood."

It came running towards me. I jumped, and doing what Toad said, kicked him in the head. He was alot madder now, and jumped over ahead my head. I ducked while it tried to jump on me.

I did a backflip like I would never of been able to do in our world, and jumped on his head. He went down. He couldn't move anymore. I went up to him to deliver the 3rd and final blow. I stamped down on his head, and his body start disappearing.

A light came from where he was, spreading all over the room. It was breaking down the walls and ceilings. And then, as if by magic, I appeared outside next to the ruins where the castle once stood. Luigi came running toward me.

"MARIO! What happened in there!"

I told him the story while he listened awe-struck(ok, maybe not...)

"And that's how I got rid of Boom-Boom"

"Boom-Boom?"

"That's my nickname for the koopa I fought"

"Boom-Boom! What kind of cheasy name is that!"

"Oh, there's no time for that. Look, the moon's already come out. We need to rest for tommorow."

"I can't believe we've only been here 2 days. It feels like we been here for eternity."

We got our sleeping bags ready, but not before discussing our plans for tommorow. We'd head south to Danger Zone 5, then head east to Zone 6, and then All we'd have to do was cross a bridge for the Oxi River and we'd be at the palace.

Neither of us could sleep. We laid up starring at the stars. I saw the airship again.

"Is that the airship Toad was telling us about?"

"Yeah. I saw it this morning."

"Mario, why do they let us sleep. Why don't they come down here and kill us at night?"

"I don't know Luigi. I just don't know..."


	6. The Travel South

Me and Luigi had a good night sleep. I woke up, maybe abou 6am. Luigi was still sleeping as usual. But I decided to to wake him up yet.

I sat down to look at the sun rise. That's when I decided. I pulled out a pad and pen from my backpack and started writing. This is when I started writing my diaries. I wrote, and I wrote, and I wrote. I wrote for about 2 hours. Then I saw Luigi waking up. I hid what I was writing. I didn't want him to know about it.

"Hey," he said. "So, we better get a move on to Zone 5."

"Yeah," I said.

And we started walking. Man, was that map misleading. It made it look like a few steps away. It took 6 days to get there. By the 3rd day I could hardly feel my legs anymore.

The other problem was the further south we went, the colder it was getting. On the night of the 4th day, me and Luigi sat huddled around a fire.

"Mamamario. I''m ferrrrrreeeeeezing!"

"I can sasasaseeeee that."

At that moment, our problem got worst. It started snowing.

"Oh Mario! We can't survive in the snow. All we have on is our overalls!"

"Don't fret Luigi, nor you Mario."

"Uh, hey Toad," I said.

"I've been watching you, and see that you are very cold. If you look in your backpacks you'll find 2 new winter jackets."

Luigi practicly ripped up his bag to get hia jacket out.

"Thank you Toad!" he screamed. "Now while your at it, do you think you could transport us straight to Zone 5?"

"I'm sorry Luigi. I would if I could, but Bowser spell over this land prevents me from doing so."

The next day was even worst. It snowed all day long like a terrible blizzard. We made through it though, but only thanks to more help from Toad. My the end of the day, our caps were replaced by touques, our white gloves replaced by winter gloves, our overalls replaced by snow pants, and our shoes replaced by boots. The snow thankfuly stopped by night, and we had a cold, but ok, sleep.

On our 6th day, the snow had stopped falling. It wasn't as cold as before, and seeing everything covered in snow was cool. It was afternoon, and Luigi was watching the map closely.

"Ok, yes. I think we're almost...1, 2, 3. YES! We're finally inside Zone 5!"

"Thank goodness," I sighed in relief.

We continued walking. The ground infront of us went down like a snow slide, leading into an undeground cave. For what my have been the first time ever, Luigi went down it first. We slid down for about a minute. On the way we killed about 5 troopa-koopas that were climbing up the slide. We landed in a small pool of water.

"WOO! That was great! Let's do it again!" screamed Luigi.

"Are you nuts!" I said.

There were a couple of coins above us, so we caught them and went on our way. We were undeground now, something that was not all the unfamiliar with me. We got out of the water, and saw a pipe coming down from the roof. A piranha plant out of it. Luckily, a troopa-koopa was coming our way too. Luigi kicked it, kill the plant.

"You know, doing this sometimes gets really boring and repetitive," said Luigi.

"I know," I said.

We walked past the pipe, and saw the ground was divided it 2. On way going up, on way going down.

"Which way should we go," said Luigi.

"Well, I've always thought we've had more luck up then down, so, up."

We jumped to the ground above. We walked deeper and deeper into the cave, not knowing where it would lead us. Finally, the path ended. There was a stone wall ahead of us, but above us was a hole that lead outside.

But neither me or Luigi could jump high enough to get out, so I climbed on Luigi's shoulders. I stuck out my hand to try to pull myself outside, but suddenly where I had put my hand, a pink block appeared.

"What the..." I said. I tried punching it, but that just made it giggle up and down. Luigi grabbed on to it's edges, and climbed on top the mysterious block. He jumped on it, and then went flying into the air until I couldn't even see him anymore.

I didn't know what just happened, but I knew I had plenty of lives to spare, so I climbed on it, and jumped. The thig bounced like a trampoline, and sent me flying up too. Up through the sky, up above the clouds, until I stopped, standing on the clouds.

"Hi there" said Luigi.

"So, this was another one of Toad's secret coins above the clouds, huh?"

We walked along the clouds, catching dozens of coins. Me and my brother shoved a oushed to get to the coins, up it was all in good fun. Me and Luigi were both adults. I was 29, and he was 25, but somehow, the Mushroom World had a way to feel so childish and fun.

The chain of coins ended, and the was a pipe that would lead us back down. The order of things was restored, as I went down first, and Luigi second.

We went through, and fell down on a snowy land below. We saw an entrance to the cave behind us, and open plain ahead of us.

"So, which way should we go this time," said Luigi.

"I dunno, let's just keep walking forward."

So we did. And we kept walking until we couldn't even see the entrance to the cave anymore. But soon we thought it was all for nothing, before there was a huge cliff infront of us.

"Well, guess we'll have to turn back," said Luigi.

"Wait, hold on. Look at this. This cliff is filled with bumps and holes just like a Rock Climbing Wall. I think this was made purposely to climb."

So we did climb. And it took a lot of energy out of both of us. Luigi seemed pretty mad that I made him do this.

"'No, let's not go in the cave. Let's just keep walking here!' Way to go Mario."

"Oh shut up, we're almost there!"

And we were. With one last pull, both us us made it to the top. The was another snow slide ahead of us, and Luigi looked thrilled.

"Wow. This totally makes up for having to climb that."

We slid down, and we couldn't control where we were going. We sled down it another entrance of the cave, but the slide kept going. Then the slide ended, and we land on a pipe that hand a piranha plant on it, making has both go small.

"OUCH!" I screamed. But just then, the plant shot out a fireball which hit Luigi. It killed him. I saw his dead body, and saw it slowly disappearing so he would come back to life somewhere else.

"Oh no," I said like it was a minor annoyance. It's strange how seeing my own brother die didn't even affect me. It's just that we've both seen each other die so many time, and I knew he'd come back. If that were his last life, of course I'd be sad. But it wasn't, so I just kept going.

I kept walking, and there was a pipe above me. I jumped in it. I came out, and it was no longer snowy, or even cold. Things looked normal again, and I was boiling in all my winter clothes. I changed out of them, and put on my regular clothes. I checked the map, and I was out of Zone 5.

I couldn't go further until Luigi came back though. In about half an hour, he came out of the warp pipe.

"Oh God it's hot here," was the first thing he said. He got out out his winter clothes too. We headed east and got past Zone 6 without any problems.

Once we got out of there, we went north. It was only about a 5 minute walk until we got to the bridge. Across the Oxi River, we could see the King's Palace. We were about to cross it, when Luigi noticed a Small Mushroon house. We decided we better got in to see it.

We walked in, but saw nothing. I was going to leave, but Luigi thought of looking in their cupboards. He opened one, and sure enough, there was a leaf.

"Yes! I finally have a leaf that I can use to turn into a racoon! I better save this, so I find the perfect time to fly."

We walked out, and crossed the bridge. Then I saw something I never expected to see. A Hammer Brother! These were Koopas that threw hammers at me. But he shouldn't of been outside a Danger Zone.

"Hey, what are you doing here!" I asked. But he didn't answer. He just started throwing hammers at me.

"Give it up Mario, you know these things can't talk! He's obviously here to keep us from getting in the castle."

We both went forward to try and attack him, but it wasn't easy. He was standing on a row of blocks, and kept throwing hammers at us.

Luigi jumped back dodging on of his hammers. I rolled under him, punched the block he was standing on, and killed him.

Now that that was over, we stepped forward to the huge castle doors. I didn't know what to do, so I knocked on the door, and waited for an answer...


	7. The Airship

I knocked the door once more. No answer.

"Uh, what should we do...?" I said.

"I don't know, let's just go in."

I was about to open the door when it was answered. It was a Mushroom Citizen, he looked exactly like Toad, like they all do. He looked very scared, sweating, pacing back and forth, and was talking very quickly.

"Oh, it's you! Both of you! The Mario Bros, I heard of you. You saved Her Highness the first time the Turtle Tribe attacked! Yes, I know you. Toad told me you would be coming. Oh, this is so frightening! Thank for coming to our rescue! Oh, the King, the King! By the way, my name's Guy, Guy Fung."

Luigi and me stared at him, as he gasped for air.

"Uh, hello Guy," I said. "Now, could you tell us what happened?"

"Oh, it was horrible; this yucky little turtle dragon koopa thingy, terrible guy. Larry I think he was called. Well, him, and all sorts of other terrible beasts came barging in through the roof, they could have at least had the decency of knocking on the door like you did! Very polite you are. Anyway, they attacked the King all of his servants, oh by the way I'm his head servant, and they took the King's wand which he uses to rule the land, and he cast a spell and turned His Majesty into a dog!"

"A dog?" I said. At the very moment a Golden Retriever, who just so happened to be wearing a crown on his head, came rushing down a near-by flight of stairs, jumped on top of me (causing me to fall to the ground) and started to lick my face.

"That's His Majesty. King Ticlffa of Hartia. Though I've been calling him Rover for the past few weeks."

"Yeah, I figured," I said. "Now could go get him off me?"

"Down boy! Down Your Majesty, That's a good king. You're getting a dog biscuit tonight!" The King jumped off of me and went running to Guy. "Now anyway, where was I. Yes, that awful Koopaling turned King Ticlffa into a dog, and all the servants went fleeing out of the palace, but I stayed here. I have honor for my country, and I'm not about to stand by and see it destroyed. Toad came by about a week later, told me the servants were hiding with him on the countryside, and that you'd 2 would be coming. And so, here you are."

"That's very brave of you Mr. Fung," said Luigi. "Now, Toad told us that you could help us get on the airship so we could fight Larry. Can you?"

"Oh yes, of course. Now here's all you have to do. Stand outside and hold hands. I'll be in here casting the spell. I got all the stuff I'll need, potions, and magic dust and stuff. Got it all from the ruins of the Magic Shop. It's this great store down in Minoka City, that's the capital of Hartia. You've only got to see the country on your journey, which is quite beautiful, but you should see Minoka. Well, at least you should of seen it before it was destroyed. That darn monster! But you're going to make him pay for what he did! Now, all I have to do is mix a few this and that's, add the powder, say a words, your names, and the name of the location to go, and presto, you'll be on the airship! Try and get the magic wand from him after he's dead. I'll be able to feel his essence gone, and I'll just do a reversal spell send you right back here, and I can use the wand to destroy the ship, restore Hartia, and most important, bring Rover back to his old self! Now, go on outside!"

Luigi and me stepped outside, and immediately started laughing.

"What was the deal with that guy?" Luigi screamed.

"I know; he didn't even stop to catch his breath. Just yak yak yak!"

"Weird fellow."

"Let's just hope he does the spell right."

I grabbed onto Luigi's hand, and we both waited, giggling for a while. Than out of nowhere I blinked and we were on the ship.

"Whoa," I said.

We were standing on the deck of the ship. It was made out of brown lumber. I could see ahead that this boat was filled with guns aiming at us. Not that this was unfamiliar. We've gone past a lot of bullets, bombs, and torpedoes on our past adventures.

"Well, let's get going," said Luigi bravely.

There were three cannons shooting from the ground. We got past them, but we could hear what sounded like millions of others shooting further ahead. I kept wonder why these cannon balls hadn't hit the boat. There was a big pillar blocking our way in front of us, and cannons firing from above us.

"How is a person supposed to walk through this ship," Luigi said.

"I think the point is for us not to get past," I said.

"So where'd do you suppose Bowser's kid is?"

"I don't know. I didn't even know Bowser had kids, let alone 7."

"He must have a wife back in Koopa World."

"Well that would explain a lot, like why he never, um, you know, took advantage of Peach when he had her captive the first time. He seems the like pf creep who'd do something like that."

We climbed over the pillar, narrowly avoiding the bullets. I rolled along the floor and got past the rest of the overhead cannons. There was a cannon in front of us. We ducked below it, waited for one cannon to shoot, and than jumped over it. There was a block ahead of us. Luigi punched it, and a mushroom came out. He gobbled it up and turned into Super Luigi.

We kept going on, there was another pillar, we again jumped over it, but unfortunately we didn't see the cannon on the other side, and Luigi jumped right on it, and the cannon sent him flying off the side of the boat. I sighed, Luigi always managed to get himself killed at the worst possible time.

I kept going, I jumped over a few cannons, no hard job. Ahead there were a few stairs to climb up to get to the top deck. I got to the top, and it was the end of the boat. Ahead I saw nothing but clear blue sky. There was nothing but a pipe in the ground. There was nowhere left to go, and with my heart beating like a jackhammer, I went in.

I landed in what look like a cabin of the ship. It was dark and I could hardly see a thing. Suddenly a light appeared. It was coming from a certain magic wand. From out of the shadows, Larry Koopa came up hold the wand.

He looked a lot like his father, only smaller. His face was light beige, with snout with sharp teeth pointing out. He had a turtle shell on his back covered in spikes. His toes and fingers were lined with claws. His head was the main feature that set him apart from Bowser. He had spiky blue hair. He looked mean! But I wasn't going to let him know that.

"Well, well, well," he said. "Look what the cat dragged in."

"Larry, I presume," trying to sound as cool as I could.

"That's the name, don't ware it out. Good work on getting past my tricks, I'll prefer killing you myself. Though my brothers and sister won't be too happy, daddy sure will be proud."

"Is this why you're doing all this? For attention from daddy?"

"No Mario, it's not. I'm doing this for pay back. You left my father to die in that lava pool. Do you how hurt he was. How much strength it took for him just to get back home. How many years it took for him to recover! How many tears my mother shed for him, staying by his bedside for his aide, all the time talking about you and your brother! All we wanted was to leave that hell of a dimension that we called home!"

"Well Bowser didn't have to do this! Did he ever ask the people of the Mushroom Kingdom if they could live with them? No! He came in here, took over, and wanted to rule over the people that land belonged to!"

"HE HAD TO! He knew those Mushroom people thought he was evil! This was the only way!"

"Oh, is that true? Or is that just what he told you to justify his actions. There's the reason they thought he was evil, because he is! I know those people, they friendly folk, and they would of happily of let you live amongst them. I don't know whether or not there's a God, but if there is, I think he put you all the other koopas in there for a reason!"

"RRRRRRRR!" he screamed. He looked furious, ready to rip me apart at any second. "NOBODY INSULTS ME OR MY FAMILY! YOU ARE DEAD!"

He screamed once more and pointed the wand at me. A spark came flying out of it towards me. I dodged it.

"You think your father's a saint, huh? Than why is he holding Princess Toadstool hostage?"

"SHE'S A !"

"Don't say that about! She's a good person, not like you!"

Following Toad's instructions, I jumped in the air, and kicked him in the head. His head, arms, and legs went inside his shell, and it went spinning towards me. I jumped over it. He came back out a second later.

"Ouch, that hurt," he said sarcastically. He aimed the wand again, I dodged it, but he came charging towards me, scratched me, and I was dead.

I woke up at the castle. Luigi and Guy were there, and Rover was licking at my face.

"Oh no, oh no! He beat, you didn't! Hurry; hurry! Get outside so I can recast the spell!"

"Wait, hold on Mr. Fung. Tell me what happened Mario." I told him the story. He couldn't believe what Larry had said. "C'mon, the both of us can take him no problem."

We went outside, Guy cast the spell, and we were back on the boat. We got through it with no problem, and went down to meet Larry again.

"Hey, what's the matter? Couldn't take me alone, had to bring your brother," he said.

"I can't believe you'd call such a wonderful woman like Peach a ," Luigi said.

"And I can't believe you'd go out in public with that face," he answered.

"OOOOHHH!" Luigi said, "What's next, going to tell a joke about my mama?

"Yeah, well I think you'd deserve that considering you tried to kill my father!"

"C'mon Mario, I can't stand to look at him for one more second."

"Took the words right of my mouth," said Larry.

He didn't even have a chance to shoot his wand. Luigi and me had planned this out. I ran up to him faking an attacking, while Luigi went behind him and jumped on him. His shell went flying to the other side of the room.

"Oh, got me once. Come and try to get me again."

So we did. Larry ran up and clawed Luigi. Luckily he had eaten a mushroom before coming up, and just turned small. This time I came up behind him and jumped on him.

"So, you got lucky and got me twice. But you ain't going to get me a third time."

"Want to bet?" I said.

He came charging towards me. He sent me flying into the corner of the room. I couldn't get up. He aimed his wand and was about to aim the wand at me, when Luigi came up behind Larry, and knocked the wand out of his hand. Larry turned around and bit Luigi in the neck killing him, but he saved me. I only had one life left; he had 2.

"Thanks Luigi," I said. I got up, and before Larry knew it, I jumped on him. He disappeared. I had killed him. 

The wand was lying on the ground. I went over to pick it up. I bright light shot out of it, and the floor beneath me was gone. The boat had disappeared, and I was falling. I fell and fell, and somehow, I fell through the roof of the castle without breaking it. I landed with a thud on the ground.

"Yes! You beat him Mario!" said Luigi.

"Yeah. And thanks for helping me out back there. But what happened to the boat?"

"OH MARIO! MARIO MARIO MARIO!" cried out Guy. "You saved us. You defeated Larry. Luigi has already told me his part of the story, and thank you too Luigi! You saved Hartia! As soon as you touched the wand everything Larry had done with that wand was reversed! You are Hartia's champions!"

"Now if you don't mind, could I have my wand back?" the voice came from a man who just came in the room. I knew who it was just by the crown on his head. It was King Ticlffa, turned back from a dog. "Thank you Mario Brothers. You are truly 10 times greater than the stories told about you. You saved my land, and me and for this I can never pay you back. I'll be careful to make sure nothing like this ever happens again." Guy was jumping up and down cheering. "My, he can get annoying sometimes." All 3 of us started laughing. "Now Mario and Luigi, I have a friend here who wants to see you."  
Toad walked in.

"Hello there boys. I teleported here as soon as the spell on Hartia had been lifted. I knew you could stop the koopaling. But don't let this one success distract you from your goal. You still have much land to travel before you can get the Princess. I'm warning you that they will get harder and harder, but I have faith in you."

"Thanks Toad," said Luigi.

"Now I have a gift for you. But I think Mario will enjoy it more. It's a letter from Peach."

"What, how could you have a letter from Peach," I asked.

"She connected with me telepathically. I'm sure she would of talked directly to you, but she's very weak, and it was easier because we already share a strong physic bond. I wrote down exactly what she said as she said it, so I wouldn't forget. She was only able to get to me after Larry's spell was undone, she too could feel his essence gone. She told a few things only to you, but she told me exactly what to tell you. Enjoy."

He handed me the letter. I read it aloud for everyone to hear:

Greetings,

If you see any ghosts, be careful.  
They will give chase if you turn away.  
I have enclosed a jewel that helps protect you.

Princess Toadstool.

PS- I love you Mario.

I didn't read the PS out loud. Pinned to the sheet was a pin in the shape of a wing with the letter P on it.

"What, that was it?" said Luigi.

"What are talking," I said. "You know she couldn't say much, and she just wanted to help us." Toad looked at me. He understood why I didn't want to read the end. "What is this thing Toad?"

"That is called a P-Wing," he said. "Peach used up all her strength just to make with her mind and send it to me. It has magical abilities. It is like the Super Leaf that turns you into a raccoon; only this will enable you to keep flying forever. Just pin it on your shirt and you'll turn into a raccoon."

And so we spent the rest of that day in the castle, all the servants and people who were in hiding came back to Hartia, and there was a huge party in the streets of Minoka City, or so I heard, I didn't go. Luigi, Toad, Guy, Ticlffa, and me enjoyed a small celebration. Luigi and me must of made pigs out of ourselves eating, it's just that we didn't have anything so good to eat in a long while.

Toad told us he'd send us to the next country tomorrow. I showed Toad this diary. Somehow I felt more comfortable showing it to him than Luigi. He thought it was great, and maybe someday they could have it published. I didn't know about it.

For a long time I had been living in fear. Today my fear was gone for a while. Luigi and me spent the night in great comfy beds, which was so much better than sleeping on the ground. We enjoyed this while it lasted…


End file.
